Gonzales joins ‘Students First’ Bethea team for school board

As the race for Bridgeton school board heats up ahead for the April 21 election, local pastor and school board candidate David Gonzales will team up with me (Edward Bethea) as part of the “Students First” slate looking to win seats on the Bridgeton Board of Education.

We share many of the same ideas and goals about Bridgeton’s educational landscape and what we want to accomplish as board members if given the opportunity.

For me, it’s always been about the students and our obligation to equip them for success; that means we have to focus on some key areas and find new ways to help them achieve. Gonzales and I share many of the same ideas on how to improve delivering education to our students in Bridgeton.

Those shared ideas include encouraging parents to partner with teachers and staff in the educational process, evaluating the performance of teachers and administrators, focusing on STEM subjects (science, technology, engineering, and math), providing early college prep for all students, improving test scores, expanding the Excel program district-wide, emphasizing ESL (English as Second Language), and building partnerships with the county college and local government.

As Gonzales said, we want to prepare students for real success in today’s and tomorrow’s workforce, not just graduating. We make a strong team because we share a passion about student success and the importance that the role technology and innovation plays in a good, strong and quality educational environment.

Gonzales recently joined me for several book fair events where we provided free science and math books to middle-school students’ city-wide and we plan other campaign stops between now and the April 21 election.

As Gonzales says, in the long run, the success of our community is tied to the success of our students. If they succeed, we succeed.

Edward Bethea

Bridgeton

About time Mazzeo

started to do his job,

help fix Atlantic City

I am tired of Assemblyman Vincent Mazzeo putting his own political future ahead of the future of Atlantic County families. Instead of rolling up his sleeves to pass the revised PILOT bill, he spends more time churning out press releases that are geared more toward getting himself elected than actually helping middle-class families.

If we are going to help Atlantic City and our surrounding Atlantic County communities, we need representatives who will do their job, not grandstand. Even worse than his canned speeches, Mazzeo’s original PILOT bill would increase property taxes by $9 million. Amazingly, Mazzeo did nothing to fix it. It was left up to Assemblyman Chris Brown to bring together Mayor Don Guardian and County Executive Denny Levinson to fix Mazzeo’s PILOT bill and protect our middle-class property taxpayers from a $9 million tax increase.

Now that others, on behalf of all of our Atlantic County families and seniors, fixed his PILOT bill, Mazzeo still can’t do his job and move his bill. Mazzeo has been quick to issue press releases with excuses why his bill has not passed the Legislature. Lately, he has blamed Gov. Chris Christie, which is a bizarre excuse since Christie has clearly asked the Legislature to pass the PILOT bill. What makes Mazzeo’s excuses even more troubling is his party is in the majority and has the votes to pass the bill. So why won’t Mazzeo do his job?

Sadly, this isn’t the only time Mazzeo has disappointed our middle-class families. He refused to work with Assemblyman Chris Brown to stop a North Jersey casino. All Mazzeo had to do was talk to his Democrat colleagues and get their signatures on a resolution. Worse, Mazzeo refused to sign his own name onto the resolution opposing a North Jersey casino.

Thousands of middle-class families’ futures are at stake here. But instead of coming up with ideas and working on solutions, Mazzeo seems intent on scoring cheap political points and casting blame on others for his inability to do his job. Thankfully, Assemblyman Chris Brown has put politics aside to get things done. It’s about time Mazzeo follow Brown’s lead.